5.0

Configuring a Virtual Hard Disk
You can configure virtual hard disks as IDE disks for any guest operating system. You can also set up a virtual
hard disk as a SCSI disk for any guest operating system that has a driver for the LSI Logic or BusLogic SCSI
adapter. You determine which SCSI adapter to use when you create a virtual machine.
The files that make up an IDE or SCSI virtual hard disk can be stored on an IDE hard disk or on a SCSI hard
disk. They can also be stored on other types of fast-access storage media.
To use SCSI hard disks in a 32-bit Windows XP virtual machine, you must download a special SCSI driver
from the VMware Web site. Follow the instructions on the Web site to use the driver with a fresh installation
of Windows XP.
Growing and Allocating Virtual Disk Storage Space
IDE and SCSI virtual hard disks can be up to 2TB. Depending on the size of the virtual hard disk and the host
operating system, Player creates one or more files to hold each virtual disk.
Virtual hard disk files include information such as the operating system, program files, and data files. Virtual
disk files have a .vmdk extension.
By default, the actual files that the virtual hard disk uses start small and grow to their maximum size as needed.
The main advantage of this approach is the smaller file size. Smaller files require less storage space and are
easier to move to a new location, but it takes longer to write data to a disk configured in this way.
You can also configure virtual hard disks so that all of the disk space is allocated when the virtual disk is
created. This approach provides enhanced performance and is useful if you are running performance-sensitive
applications in the virtual machine.
Regardless of whether you allocate all disk space in advance, you can configure the virtual hard disk to use a
set of files limited to 2GB per file. Use this option if you plan to move the virtual hard disk to a file system that
does not support files larger than 2GB.
Add a New Virtual Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
To increase storage space, you can add a new virtual hard disk to a virtual machine. You can add up to four
IDE devices and up to 60 SCSI devices. Any of these devices can be a virtual or physical hard disk or DVD or
CD-ROM drive.
Virtual hard disks are stored as files on the host computer or on a network file server. A virtual IDE drive or
SCSI drive can be stored on a physical IDE drive or on a physical SCSI drive.
If you have a Windows NT 4.0 virtual machine that has a SCSI virtual hard disk, you cannot add both an
additional SCSI disk and an IDE disk to the configuration.
As an alternative to adding a new virtual hard disk, you can expand the existing virtual hard disk. See “Expand
a Virtual Hard Disk,” on page 80.
Procedure
1 Select the virtual machine and select Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings.
2 On the Hardware tab, click Add.
3 In the New Hardware wizard, select Hard Disk.
4 Select Create a new virtual disk.
Getting Started with VMware Player
78 VMware, Inc.